A guide carriage having a cutting device for cutting or cutting through a cylindrical workpiece is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,291,395. This guide carriage has a tool carrier for a cutting tool and includes a tension chain which wraps around the workpiece and is guided over tensioning elements. Acting on the tensioning elements is a tensioning arrangement, which is provided on the chassis of the guide carriage. This tensioning arrangement acts via the tensioning element on the tension chain and secures the latter against generated operating forces such that it is non-displaceable on the periphery of the workpiece. The chassis is moveable in the peripheral direction of the workpiece along the tension chain.
The tension chain is of endless configuration, so that the guide carriage is transportable over the whole of the periphery of the workpiece. This presupposes, however, that the tension chain can be slipped over an axial end of the workpiece in order to be positioned on the workpiece.
In applications in which a concrete pipe to be cut is buried in the earth and no end is exposed, the guide carriage, in the absence of mounting options for the tension chain over an axial end of the concrete pipe, cannot be fixed securely on the pipe. This applies also to tall vertical columns, in which, though the free end is present, it is poorly accessible.